Ah, but it doesn't apply to the business world, that's the thing. What makes school bullying viable is that nothing you do matters---the effect of everything you do is delayed twelve years. Everyone progresses at the same rate through the institution, in spite of high or low performance. So if no one's going to outrace you (and even if they did, it would only be academically, which no one cares about it in k-12), there's no real penalty for becoming some poor kid's private nightmare.

Not so much in the business world (and especially tech); while you're busy engaging in a dogfight with Joe Competitor, some third company is kicking your trash by spending money on R&D rather than winning a marketing/feature war. So it generally makes sense to avoid direct confrontation, because it slows you down.

Everybody respects a brave warrior, even enemies or especially the enemies.

Even captured warrior. In WW1 and WW2 many captured pilots were treated with dignity - one of such stories: http://www.campking.net/WORLDWAR.html

Or the notorious Douglas Bader escape: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Bader#Prisoner_of_War